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By reading this post you are living. You breath. You bink. Your heart beats. You have a fantastic day. You go through rough patches. But what is life all about?

The meaning of life

Wikipedia have some excellent views that outline what the meaning of life might be. Some of them include:

To chase dreams. To live one’s dream.

To survive. To live as long as possible.

To seek wisdom and knowledge, for example, to learn as many things as possible.

To do good, such as, getting equality or being generous.

Regardless of what your meaning of life actually is living it to its full is very important. You will only live once. You cannot go back and redo something. There is no rewind button. Equally so, there is no fast forward button. Is the meaning of life to simply live?

The human body

Our body is made up of approximately 70% water so is our amazing planet. We have simply one of the greatest instruments in the world. Our brain allows us to learn and communicate with one another whilst our body allows us to move from place-a to place-b. Use whatever body you have to its fullest. Learn, communicate and experience things in life.

There are always people who are less fortunate than ourselves.

Bad days happen to everyone. But it’s at times like these whenever we need to think about the bigger picture. Our bad day is simply someone else’s good day. Be thankful for the things you have in your life. If everyone on this amazing planet lived their life as if it was going to be their last it would be a life well lived.

Over the weekend, a parade took place across Belfast, NI. This parade had certain conditions, which were made by the Parades Commission, and these conditions led to a little violence. But before I tell you briefly what all this fuss is about, you should know that parades take place throughout the year, here in NI. And most of these parades are taken by “Orange Men” within NI.

The small minority of people took place in a march on Sat 25th Aug 2012, but they made Northern Ireland look like a country that should be less travelled. According to reports, seven police officers were injured, three arrested, and one charged by a small criminal court (Magistrates Court) in NI [1].

Ireland and complexities

To the outsider looking in, the troubles sound a little silly. But for some people here, trouble means more than a matter of principle. It means culture. It can also mean doing the same thing time and time again – yes, this includes bad cultural behaviours, including violence.

In a nut shell, the trouble on Sat relates to the annual 12th July parade. This is taken by “Orange Men” (protestant) who agree that NI should remain apart of the United Kingdom, and therefore they gather each year on the 12th July each and every year. But on the 12th July 2012 these Orange Men passed a Catholic church (St Patrick’s), and purposely stopped outside a Catholic church when it wasn’t supposed to. They didn’t simply stop, they played music (beating their own drums etc.) while passers-by watched.

On this occasion passers-by took videos and photographs of the incident. One of them had a video showing that members of the parade purposely caused a fight with an observer, who happened to be a Catholic. This proved to be a nasty combination. The people who run the parade (Parade Commission) told the Royal Black Institution march (the march which took place on Sat 25 Aug 2012) never to stop outside St Patrick’s church again, but some people within the march on Saturday didn’t take this very well. In essence they didn’t like being told what to do, even by the parades commission — the people who look after the running of all parades within NI. On 25th Aug 2012, the group of marchers took to the same spot in protest for being told off. But like anything in NI, the police gathered to ensure both sides (Catholic vs Protestant) didn’t come too close to one another. In the past, history has proved that these clashes does lead to trouble within the surrounding areas.

Northern Ireland has differences, some people get on with these differences, others like to really annoy others by reminding them of these differences. Of course there are a few people who still like to annoy the other side for the laugh – or craic (pronounced crack: a crack on the pavement), as the locals often say!

Why should everyone just get on with it?

No matter what happened, NI would be so much better if people just got on with it. Don’t you think so? I am sure you work with somebody you don’t particularly like, yet you pass yourself with them to get on with it. Or, your neighbour is a little annoying, but you simply keep chat to a minimum to pass yourself.

These are good examples of living your life. Those who do not get too caught up with the moment of disagreement do better than those who do get caught up in the moment.

The world is beautiful

I hope whenever I reach 50 most people at home (NI) will just pass themselves. NI is a beautiful country, so much so, I would like to share this beauty with you by showing you a few places here:

This was made thousands of years ago by a volcano.

A place for entertainment in Belfast. It includes cinema, club, pubs, bowling…

Why don’t people here get on with others as they might do on a Sat night? Pass yourself if you don’t get on with someone in a pub, or know that the song you dislike is only going to be on for a few minutes – no need to get up and go!

Landmarks around the city of Belfast

The building where both sides meet, make laws and help each other

This is very old, but you can pass, one at a time to see part of the wonderful island

I hope you get the idea? No matter what happens, NI will always be great place. I think if everyone here got on with each other it would be a little nicer! By the way, I feel that I need to make something clear, tourists are liked here. The hatred is really for local citizens. And I don’t get commission if you travel to here!

People should get on with their lives, live their own lives, and try to let others live their own live too. If this happened, everyone here, at home, would be much happier. Their is too much negativity at times, people simply like to live today, as if it were yesterday. Sadly, people do like to live in the past. Even when they talk about the future.

Post 59:

Your past helps shape your future

So, a few days ago I looked at the number of assignments I have completed, and the small number I have left. I found that I only have a few pieces of coursework, five exams and in about three months that’ll be the end of Year Two. But I was also thinking that everyone has lots (and lots) of motivation, even when they don’t think they do!

Lots of us experience bad days making us stumble past each day very slowly. Often a really bad day can result in us thinking that the day is longer than it really is: an hour can feel like a day, let alone 60 minutes. However, we seem to wake up the next day thinking that we have a clean sheet of paper. Does this already reveal that a new day can often bring about more positivity?

Acknowledge a bad day

As humans, we all make mistakes, but as human beings we also have the ability to relate some excellent qualities, such as, coupling emotions, physical and verbal skills together – isn’t the body (and mind) amazing?

But what makes a bad day worth while, it to wake up the next morning saying to yourself:

Today is going to be much, much better

The very fact of us recognising that we are not performing to our best is our bodies way of telling us to rest. You could be a student pushing yourself too far, you could also be a Mum doing too much, or you could be someone who constantly keeps pushing boundaries so far each time.

But when did you ever say you accomplished something?

Bad days allow so many things

Having a bad day allows us to express ourselves emotionally to others. Something people do not naturally bring up in normal everyday conversations

Perhaps a bad day, allows us to remind ourselves that we can connect with our emotions – life could be worse

Having a bad day allows us to look forward to tomorrow even more than we were yesterday

Perhaps a bad day, allows us to remember than in life, we get to experience various levels of joy

Having a bad day allows us to keep more motivated than ever before

Perhaps a bad day, allows us to acknowledge that we are much stronger than we initially thought

In all, the next time you have a bad day remind yourself that you can do it, you will do it, and when you have a good day (hopefully the next day) by truly appreciating that life is full of finer things!

Post 59, over and out

Post 55:

You only will ever have one body – take care of it

So I had the flu over the weekend, and was thinking today just how amazing our body is, yet we always put ourselves down whenever we should be supporting it.

Just quickly, whenever you get the flu it knocks you for six because you tend to lose your appetite, shiver, break out in hot and cold sweats. Our body raises it temperature to kill off the nasty virus, because normal body temperature allows viruses to multiple and live on if it didn’t change – nature is very clever indeed.

Do I look fat in this photo?

However, when we are feeling fine, we are very quick to shoot ourselves down. We don’t seem to appreciate the more precious things in life. We forget that we are unique individuals, and criticize ourselves, or even worse other people!

As part of being human we are far from perfect, but every day our heart just keeps beating to allow us to share our lives with other people. Our mind keeps growing to let us keep learning. Our face still smiles to let the world know we’re happy. But, when do we ever take time to consider these important things whenever we ponder on a funny story? Perhaps, we need to wake up everyday and say:

I am me, unique and a complete individual.

Everyone say “Cheese”

So the next time you have a bad hair day or you see someone else running late to get to somewhere, use your emotions to think, why do I judge others as I don’t wish others to judge me?

We are all entitled to bad days, we all have them, we are all human beings. But we can also get too wrapped up in ourselves by blurring what is really going on in life.

What we need to remember:

Life is good, if you feel good, embrace it – live it, take advantage of how good life is

If we get up and feel a little tired, or not quite our best, reinforce that things could be worse – keep going

We only get one shot at life, so why waste what we have but not using our skills, doing the things we are (and have always) been interested in by making ourselves happy

Eat a balnced diet, reward our brilliant body by giving it nutrients

Try not to turn into a fitness freak but try to get some exercise. Sometimes an evening walk lets us have some time with ourselves, our thoughts and appreciate things that are going on in our lives

This isn’t a spiritual message, or anything to that effect, but we do need to remember that we need to reconnect with ourselves. This could include, listening to our environment and acknowledge ourselves.

Self praise is no praise

Perhaps it isn’t right to blow our own trumpet but it isn’t wrong to say:

Go me, I did it.

One thing we can teach ourselves, is to teach others that life is precious, so enjoy it – live it, love it. Enjoy your body, use it to the best of your ability (albeit, a joke turning into a laugh, a walk turning into some self-time).

Now, that would be a fantastic generation of children – those who have a balanced life!

PS, sorry if this got a little deep. I am so glad to be eating, listening to music, and enjoying life after being in bed for a few days!